A/N: To the guest reviewer, I think it would be fun to read a story where they meet in college, but I'm probably out of college stories myself. I did write one where they meet when Eric is a college freshman (or sophomore) and an assistant volunteer high school coach at the high school where Tami is a senior. That one was in flashbacks within another story.

[*]

During dinner, Eric looked everywhere but in the Reverend's eyes.

"You joining the Secret Service, Eric?" Tami's father asked as he reached for the basket of rolls. "Looks like you're constantly scanning for threats. I assure you no one is after anyone at this table, though."

"Sorry," Eric muttered and looked Tami's father straight in the eyes, for about two seconds, before turning them to Tami's mother. "You make an amazing lasagna, Mrs. Hayes."

"Why thank you, Eric."

After the meal, Mrs. Hayes made homemade whip cream and brought out fresh berries for toppings, and they all sat around the kitchen table eating sundaes.

Shelley scarfed hers down because there was a honk outside the parsonage - her ride to a dress rehearsal for the May musical.

"You know she's going to be great in that play," the Reverend said when she was gone. "I wish she'd stick with drama next year."

"I don't know about that drama crowd, though," Mrs. Hayes said. "I've heard some of them are into drugs."

"She needs to be more consistent," the Reverend said. "Find her niche and bloom."

"She's fifteen, Edward. She needs to explore her interests."

Tami hadn't expected her mother to take that side of the argument.

"I just fear she may never stop exploring them," the Reverend said. "That she'll never settle into anything in her life. She's such a free spirit that one. Which is fine…up to a point."

"Well then put your foot down, Edward! Be authoritative and tell her she has to stick with it next year. Either that or stop complaining about it. One or the other. But you're always ruminating instead of acting." She left her spoon in the bowl and stood. "I need to go practice my piano." Tami's mother was no longer the regular pianist at church these days, but she played special music selections on occasion. "Eric, it was nice having you." Tami's mother pushed in her chair. "And Edward, you can get the dishes."

"What was that about?" Tami asked when her mother exited the kitchen.

"Your mother's a little peeved with me right now."

"I can see that," Tami said, "what for?"

"I might have saddled her with altar guild duty without discussing it with her first. Apparently she doesn't like to arrange flowers as much as I imagined she did. And now she wants me to tell the altar guild ladies she's not going to be doing it, but I don't want to tell them, because those ladies scare me a little bit, so I told her to tell them."

Eric, clearly a bit more relaxed now by the Reverend's levity, laughed. "You're afraid of some little old church ladies?"

"You have no idea, Eric, what they're capable of. They can make a minister's life miserable. They're best avoided."

Eric shook his head and smiled slightly.

"You'll see when you're a coach. You'll have a similar relationship with your boosters. In so far as you can avoid dealing with them, you will. You'll leave them to be managed by Tami's extroverted talents."

An awkward silence followed. Eric studied the last bite of his ice cream intensely. Before Tami could say anything to deflect the moment, her father re-routed the current of the conversation: "How's your father's bar hunt going?"

"He's found a place he likes in Deep Ellum." He set his spoon in his bowl. "It's a neighborhood in Dallas, known for its music scene, but he's waiting for the seller to drop his price before he commits."

"Is he going to have live music? He doesn't strike me as a music lover."

"If he thinks it will help business, I'm sure he'll do it," Eric answered. "After a lot of research."

Eric offered to clear the dishes to the sink, and then he made his polite farewell. "I owe my mom some time. We're playing Gin Rummy tonight."

When he was gone, Tami washed the dishes Eric had brought to the sink, and her father dried them. She said, "You seem pretty sure Eric and I are going to end up married."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that."

"But you did imply it. You seemed sure."

"You're considerably less sure, I gather," he said. "You think you might find a better match at UT-Dallas. Someone more intellectual, perhaps? Less traditional? More modern?"

"I didn't say that."

"If you do, Tami…it happens. You're only 18. I like Eric. He's a good kid. But I certainly won't think any less of you if you decide to move on when you go away to college."

"I don't want to move on. I'm just afraid."

"Of what, exactly?"

"I don't know," she admitted.

"That he'll cheat like Mo did?"

"Not really," she said. "He's too honorable for that. But I guess I'm afraid we'll just…drift apart."

"That happens. But if you don't want it to happen, there are things you can do to stay connected. And he's welcome to stay with us here when you're home on breaks, if you like, provided he behaves himself." He might as well have said, "No extramarital sex under my roof."

Tami flushed and busied herself turning off the water and wiping down the counter. She got herself a glass of sweet tea and sat down at the kitchen table. Her father joined her. "What made you say that just now?" she said. "About me finding someone more intellectual? Less traditional? Do you think Eric and I aren't compatible?"

"I didn't say that. What do you think?"

"I think Eric's pretty old fashioned, but I don't dislike that. I can see us butting heads about gender roles, probably, at some point, but I like that he's…you know. Masculine. Strong. Respectful."

"Steady? Dependable?"

"Yeah."

"Those are good qualities to look for in a man. But you have to make sure you don't get bored with his predictability. You're a curious girl, an energetic and spontaneous one, and sometimes the predictable may seem less than thrilling to you. You have to keep acknowledging its value. You have to understand there are trade-offs – a flipside to every virtue, as to every vice."

"And you don't think Eric's smart?" she asked.

"I think he's smart. I just think he's not intellectual."

"He gets all As and Bs in school," she said. "His GPA is higher than mine."

"Yes, but yours will be higher than his in college. And his is high because he's a rule-follower. He shows up and does what he's supposed to do. He has a capable mind, but his G.P.A. isn't high because he's interested in intellectual things."

"But the stuff that he is interested in -"

"- Football."

Tami smiled, "Yeah, football. He really gets into it, Daddy. Into the details. He thinks about it. Deeply."

The Reverend nodded. "I've seen that."

"And it's not like I need to sit around discussing theology and literature and philosophy as much as you do. It's interesting when you and I do it, don't get me wrong, but I don't need to do it that often. I guess that's hard for you, that Mom's not much interested in all that."

"Your mother has many virtues, but that's not one of our commonalities, no."

"You probably weren't thinking philosophically when you fell for her."

He chuckled. "No. I wasn't. Though why she fell for me is even more of a mystery. I didn't even have dashing good looks to recommend myself. But we've made it work, Tami, despite our differences. I appreciate her virtues, which balance my vices, and I've found other outlets for those sorts of intellectual discussions."

"I know. But I'm leaving, Daddy."

He smirked. "Are you suggesting Shelley's not going to pick up your slack when you're gone?"

Tami laughed. "I'm sure she'll be happy to have really deep conversations about The Love Boat with you." She tilted her head and studied him. "Seriously, Daddy, what are you going to do when I'm gone?"

"Honestly? I'm thinking of leaving the pastorate once Shelley graduates high school and teaching at a seminary or Christian college. There are one or two that might employ me with just my Master's degree, given my publications and life experience. That ought to put me in the path of plenty of conversation partners."

"What would you teach?"

"I don't know. Theology. Church History. Poetry. Latin. Whatever they'll hire me to teach."

"How does Mom feel about all that?"

"The idea didn't precisely thrill her at first. We'd lose the parsonage, for one, and she raised her girls here."

Tami didn't like the idea of the parsonage vanishing from her life either. She always imagined visiting her parents here, in her childhood home.

"But, believe it or not, as good as she is at the job, your mother's getting tired of playing the pastor's wife. She'll have played this role for a quarter of a century by the time Shelley graduates from high school. She might want to try pursuing some career interests of her own."

"Really?" Tami asked. "Mom?" What could her mom even do? "Like…what career interest?" Tami's mom had no college credits and not a whole lot of marketable skills.

"Listen." The Reverend fell silent and held up a finger. The sounds of the piano drifted into the kitchen. "You hear that? She's very good, you know. All these years she's played on and off for the church, she's never gotten paid, but people will pay for that."

"Is that why you were asking about Eric's dad having music in his bar?"

"Good Lord, no. You think I'm going to let my wife play piano in a bar? You should see the way those men hit on Eric's mother that one time I saw her working there. I'll probably get a teaching job at a school near Dallas. Your mother will hire herself out to churches that need substitutes, for special events, and she'll probably start giving private piano lessons. Lots more kids do that sort of thing in cities than in Rankin."

"So both our families will be in Dallas by the time Eric and I graduate college? That'll be convenient."

"Convenient, huh?" Her father smiled. That was when Tami realized that she really was imagining a future married to Eric.

She wondered if he was imagining it too, or if that awkward silence after her father's words meant the idea frightened him.